232 MARRIAGE AND DISEASE. 



changed to two of his sons, and in another transmuted 

 to epilepsy a very common change while in the 

 fourth the family blight was only represented by 

 irritability. On the maternal side, the " oddity " 

 of the grandmother, a purely neurotic character, 

 becomes deepened to epilepsy in a son and insanity 

 in a daughter, while in the three remaining members 

 of the family the character of the degeneration is 

 transmuted from the neurotic to the rheumatic dia- 

 thesis, one son being totally crippled by the rheu- 

 matic affection, and having a daughter already crippled 

 from the same cause. It is also to be noticed in this 

 family that the two neurotic children never suffered 

 from rheumatism, and the three inheriting the rheu- 

 matic diathesis did not show any symptoms of the 

 neurotic. The union of members (both neurotic) 

 of these degenerate families produced five children, 

 three sons and two daughters, not one of which 

 escaped the family taint. One escaped the insane 

 or neurotic diathesis only to inherit rheumatism of 

 a virulent type ; infantile convulsions, suicidal melan- 

 cholia and chronic-mania branding the others as the 

 offspring of a decaying stock. 



Some may think from rheumatism to insanity 

 rather a long cry, and look upon the appearance 

 of both in the above family as a mere coincidence ; 

 but a very brief examination of the facts will con- 

 clusively prove the near relationship existing between 

 these two apparently distinct symptoms or forms of 

 constitutional decay. 



